Mousterian

Mousterian

Geographical range	Afro-Eurasia
Period	Middle Paleolithic
Dates	600,000 – 40,000 BP[1]
Type site	Le Moustier
Major sites	Creswell Crags, Lynford Quarry, Arcy-sur-Cure, Vindija Cave, Atapuerca Mountains, Zafarraya, Gorham's Cave, Devil's Tower, Haua Fteah
Preceded by	Micoquien, Clactonian
Followed by	Châtelperronian, Emireh culture, Aterian

The Paleolithic
↑ Pliocene (before Homo)
Lower Paleolithic (c. 3.3 Ma – 300 ka) Oldowan (2.6–1.7 Ma) Riwat (1.9–0.045 Ma) Madrasian Culture (1.5 Ma) Soanian (0.5–0.13 Ma) Acheulean (1.8–0.1 Ma) Clactonian (0.3–0.2 Ma) Middle Paleolithic (300–45 ka) Mousterian (150–40 ka) Micoquien (130–70 ka) Aterian (82 ka) Upper Paleolithic (50–10 ka) Baradostian (36 ka) Châtelperronian (45–40 ka) Aurignacian (43–26 ka) Gravettian (29–22 ka) Solutrean (22–17 ka) Magdalenian (17–12 ka) Hamburg (14–11 ka) Federmesser (14–13 ka) Ahrensburg (12–11 ka) Swiderian (11–8 ka)
↓ Mesolithic ↓ Stone Age

mtDNA-based simulation of the species Homo sapiens in Europe starting 1600 generations ago. Homo neanderthalensis range in light grey.^[2]

Mousterian is a name given by archaeologists to a style of predominantly flint tools (or industry) associated primarily with Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis). They date to the Middle Paleolithic, the middle part of the European Old Stone Age.

Naming

The culture was named after the type site of Le Moustier, a rock shelter in the Dordogne region of France.^[3] Similar flintwork has been found all over unglaciated Europe and also the Near East and North Africa. Handaxes, racloirs and points constitute the industry; sometimes a Levallois technique or another prepared-core technique was employed in making the flint flakes.^[4]

Characteristics

Mousterian tools that have been found in Europe were made by Neanderthals and date from around 160,000 BP and 40,000 BP.^[5] Some assemblages, namely those from Pech de l’Aze, include exceptionally small points prepared using the Levallois technique among other prepared core types, causing some researchers to suggest that these flakes take advantage of greater grip strength possessed by Neanderthal physiology.^[6] In North Africa and the Near East, Mouseterian tools were also produced by anatomically modern humans. In the Levant, for example, assemblages produced by Neanderthals are indistinguishable from those made by Qafzeh type modern humans.^[7] It may be an example of acculturation of modern humans by Neanderthals because the culture after 130,000 years reached the Levant from Europe (the first Mousterian industry appears there 200,000 BP) and the modern Qafzeh type humans appear in the Levant another 100,000 years later.

Possible variants are Denticulate, Charentian (Ferrassie & Quina) named after the Charente region,^[8] Typical and the Acheulean Tradition (MTA) - Type-A and Type-B.^[9] The industry continued alongside the new Châtelperronian industry during the 45,000-40,000 BP period.^[10]

Locations

• Mousterian artifacts have been found in Haua Fteah in Cyrenaica and other sites in Northwest Africa.^[11]
• Contained within a cave in the Syria region, along with a Neanderthaloid skeleton.^[11]
• Located in the Haibak valley of Afghanistan.^[11]
• Zagros and Central Iran
• The archaeological site of Atapuerca, Spain, contains Mousterian objects.
• Gorham's Cave in Gibraltar contains Mousterian objects.
• Uzbekistan has sites of Mousterian culture, including Teshik-Tash.^[11]
• Turkmenistan also has Mousterian relics.^[11]
• Siberia has many sites with Mousterian style implements, eg Denisova Cave.^[11]

• 
  A reconstruction of the head of the Shanidar 1 fossil, a Homo neanderthalensis male who lived circa 70000 BCE discovered in the mid-20th century at the Mousterian archaeological site Shanidar Cave
• 
  Range of Homo neanderthalensis
• 
  Restoration of Le Moustier Homo neanderthalensis by Charles R. Knight
• 
  Levallois points
• 
  Proximal Phalanges

See also

• Neanderthal extinction hypotheses
• Synoptic table of the principal old world prehistoric cultures
• Levallois technique

References

1. Neanderthals: Bone technique redrafts prehistory : Nature News & Comment
2. Currat, Mathias; Excoffier, Laurent (2004). "Modern Humans Did Not Admix with Neanderthals during Their Range Expansion into Europe". PLoS Biology. 2 (12): e421. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0020421. PMC 532389. PMID 15562317.
3. William A. Haviland; Harald E. L. Prins; Dana Walrath; Bunny McBride (24 February 2009). The Essence of Anthropology. Cengage Learning. p. 87. ISBN 978-0-495-59981-4. Retrieved 23 November 2011.
4. Mark Aldenderfer; Alfred J. Andrea; Kevin McGeough; William E. Mierse; Carolyn Neel (29 April 2010). World History Encyclopedia. Abc-Clio. p. 330. ISBN 978-1-85109-929-0. Retrieved 23 November 2011.
5. Shaw, Ian; Jameson, Robert, eds. (1999). A Dictionary of Archaeology. Blackwell. p. 408. ISBN 0-631-17423-0. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
6. Dibble, Harold L.; McPherron, Shannon P. (October 2006). "The Missing Mousterian". Current Anthropology. 47 (5): 777–803. doi:10.1086/506282.
7. Shea, J. J., 2003: Neandertals [sic], competition and the origin of modern human behaviour in the Levant, Evolutionary Anthropology, 12:173-187.
8. Andrew Lock, Charles R. Peters - Handbook of human symbolic evolution - 906 pages Oxford science publications Wiley-Blackwell, 1999 ISBN 0-631-21690-1 RETRIEVED 2012-01-06
9. University of Oslo P.O. Box 1072 - Blindern-0316 Oslo-Norway email : [email protected]. / [email protected] - Universitetet i Oslo. Retrieved 2012-01-06
10. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v512/n7514/full/nature13621.html
11. Langer, William L., ed. (1972). An Encyclopedia of World History (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company. p. 9. ISBN 0-395-13592-3.

External links

• Neanderthals’ Last Stand Is Traced — New York Times article (Published: September 13, 2006)